Thursday, March 22, 2012

I am a believer in hands on, social, experiential, interest led, play-based learning. I came across this article a couple years ago and thought it was an amazing demonstration of these basic concepts. The key aspects being the children are in a group, working together, they are led by their own interests, with minimal adult guidance, and are using trial and error to figure stuff out.

One of the biggest hurdles in using technology is that the majority of the time a person is using the computer or device by themselves. Piaget and Vygotsky were both psychologists that spent a lot of time studying and forming theories on childhood development. Piaget's emphasis was on action and experimentation while Vygotsky said that understanding and knowledge originated from social interactions. The astounding results described in this article can be explained by the fact that both sensory and social interaction were blended. Groups of children worked together to figure out hard problems. They were able to discuss what they were doing and build off each other's experience to gain greater understanding and games were able to give the children sensory feedback that they could use to test their understanding.

They are a native species worldwide, that have thrived along with humans. Most species that thrive in human areas are invasive, and much of their ability to thrive is because they have no natural predators.

They can speak human languages. Ravens and sometimes crows can mimic human speech. The raven at the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium in Tacoma, WA said, "Hello there," to me and my family. In the book The Curve of Time, Blanchet tells a story she heard about how the Native Americans would talk with the ravens, and how a raven brought news to them that one of their people had died.

One particular story I enjoyed, was in one of the books above, (I think Encounters with the Wise Guys) about some researches observing a crow competing for a mate against his son. There was no fighting, but she chose his son. The father crow flew to the neighboring territory and "married" the crow there who had just become widowed. He essentially adopted her chicks and helped her raise them.

Saturday, March 3, 2012

The first app I am releasing will be for Android. It is somewhat embarrassing, but I do not
own a smart phone. My cell is almost an
antique and it is rarely charged or in my purse. Thus I haven’t been very familiar with
mobile apps. My husband got an iTouch
for Christmas a few years ago, but it was his, and I didn't use it much.

However a couple Christmas’s ago I got a Nook Color.
I had been using all my willpower to resist buying an e-reader. I got most of my books at the library and did
not need an e-reader. But every time I
would open Amazon they would be harassing me—Kindle, Kindle, Kindle. What I really wanted was a mobile device that
I could read books on, but also have access to the internet so I could read
blogs and message boards. Then Apple
came out with the iPad and I was going to ask for that for Christmas, but I was
bummed about the large price tag. Then
Barnes and Noble came out with the Nook Color and I figured that would be
perfect. I could read books, check
e-books out from the library and read the internet. (Too bad Amazon didn’t come out with the
Fire a year earlier.) When I got it, the
first thing I did was root it, and the next obvious step was writing an app for
it.

Android is more accessible for me. I do not own a Mac and thus I cannot develop
for iOS. If I had had any forethought
when I replaced my PC a few months ago I would have got a Mac and dual booted
it with Windows, but honestly the thought never occurred to me. My
hope is that I can make some money with Android apps to justify investing in a
Mac for iOS development.

As for market comparison, my impression is that the apps
available on iOS are of overall better quality, and it is easier to convince
iOS customer’s to pay for apps. I am
hoping that a good app should stand out more on Android. Ad revenue seems to be the method of earnings
on Android, but I will be writing apps for kids and do not feel ads are
appropriate in those instances. I am
hoping the paid app model will work out for me, especially with the launch of
the Kindle Fire, but I have an ad revenue idea as well. We’ll see if it pans out.

I think iOS is where the edutainment market is at. It seems that many schools are purchasing
iPads. I have a couple edutainment app ideas
targeted towards older kids that I think would do much better in the iOS
market, but I’ll tackle that later.

Learn To Read is an interactive early reader ebook for kids. The idea for this app came from the frustration that most beginning reader books have very small type. It is hard for children to focus on the words and move their fingers along the letters, while they sound it out. Flash cards solve the size problem, but are boring because there is no content.

New Features

New animation when the correct word is tapped

You can now choose between two fonts. The original print based font, or a font called OpenDyslexia that some people with dyslexia find easier to read.

Other App Features

Alliterative and rhyming verse to promote phonemic awareness.

The child is asked to find the target word on a screen of words that sound and are spelled similarly. This puzzle encourages the child to look for patterns in the words to find the correct answer.

Uses a simple print based font where the letters look like the letters they are taught to write.

There are sixteen target words for a total of 64 pages.

There is a "read-to-me" option where the child can click the button to have the app read them the text.